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A. J. FARNSWORTH AND E. M. ST. CLAIRE.

BAG HOLDER. APPLICATION HLED MAR.28, l9l9.

PatentedJ1uu 24,l9l9.

I and State of California,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR J. FARN'SWORTH AND ETHELBEBT M. ST. CLAIRE, OF SAN FRANCISCO,

- CALIFORNIA.

BAG-HOLDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 24, 1919.

Application filed March 28, 1919. Serial No. 285,843.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ARTHUR J. FARNS- WORTH and ETHELBERT M. ST. CLAIRE,citizone of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the countyof San Francisco have invented a new and useful Ba -Holder, of which thefollowing is a specification.

Our inventionrelates to improvements in bag holders and refers moreparticularly to a device in which the bag may be held with its moutheither open or closed as desired.

Among the salient objects of the invention are, first, to provide aconstruction adapted to support a bag in such a manner that the weightof its contents will be sustained by a relatively large portion of thematerial of which the bag is composed so that the strength of thematerial may be utilized to the utmost; second, to afford facilities forquickly and firmly attaching the bag to the holder; third, to furnishconvenient means for holding the bag in either open or closed position;and, fourth, to produce a device of this nature that is simple,reliable, and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. This holding bagsmade terial, is especially paper bags for the invention, althoughadapted for of any ordinary masuited for supporting disposition ofgarbage, or other waste material, and we have selected for illustrativepurposes this particular form of the device as shown in the accompanyingdrawing in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the bag holdercomplete; Fig. 2 is a perspective view, on a smaller scale, showing apaper bag in position on the holder and indicating the manner in whichit is applied; Fig. 3 is a rear view of the device, showing themechanism controlling the movement of the bag holding arms; Fig. 4: is asection through the central portion of one of the bag holding arms, ason the line 4.4 of Fig. 1, and with a portion of a bag in place; Fig. 5is a fragmentary section on the same enlarged scale, taken on the line5-5 of Fig. 3; and Fig. 6 is a front view, on the same scale, of one ofthe spring washers used in the device.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The base 1 is preferably a flanged metal stamping provided with screwholes 2 for lected for illustrating attaching it to a convenientsupporting surface. A slot 3 in the upper portion of the flange acts asa guide for the levers Twhich are attached to the base at their lowerends by means of the pivots 5. The latter are riveted to the levers inthe manner indicated more particularly in Fig. 5, and are free to turnin holes provided for that purpose in the base. Pivots 5 have enlargedheads, as shown, to maintain. them in their proper axial position withrespect to the base.

Cup shaped washers 6, made of spring metal with radial slots, may bemounted on pivots 5 between the levers and the base to serve as aconvenient means for introducing frictional resistance to the movementof the levers so that they will normally remain in the position in whichthey are placed. Spacing washers 7, (Fig. 5) may also be added, ifdesirable, to increase the tension of the spring washers or to permitthe use of spring washers having less convexity than would otherwise berequired. 7

At the upper ends of levers i, and extending forwardly therefrom, arethe horizontal bag holding arms 8. These are preferably made channelshaped, in pairs, with their forward ends rounded to allow the materialof the bag to slip over them easily. The rear ends of these arms have aportion of their flanges and webs milled off to form tongues that arepassed through rectangular slots in the upper ends of levers a andriveted over on the back sides thereof. This construction is indicatedmore particularly in Fig. 3.

Clamping bars 9 are provided for each supporting arm to serve forgripping the bag material. Only one of these is shown in the views onaccount of the position sethe device. These bars are centrally pivotedon the up-turned forward ends of spring bars 10 of which there are alsotwo, one being hidden from view in the figures. The rear ends of bars 10are riveted into holes provided for that purpose in the upper ends oflevers 4, and they are adjusted by bending in such a manner thatclamping bars 9 will normally be held firmly against the web of the bagholding arms 8. g

Levers 4 are connected together within the casing by means of the links11, pinned to the levers at 12 and 13 respectively and to each other at14:. Pin 14; is elongated to extend forwardly through the guiding slot15 in the base, and is provided at its outer end with a head to hold itin position relative thereto, as indicated in Fig. 1. Any

angular movement of either lever will obviously cause a correspondingreversed angular movement of the other.

Pivots 5 are so spaced that the moments of the downward pull of the bagand its contents will tend to keep levers 1 at the extremes of theirmotion, and consequently the mouth of the bag will remain either open orclosed as desired. The closed position of levers 4 and links 11 isindicated by dotted lines in Fig. 8.

For supporting a bag made of paper, or

other relatively weak material, as shown at 16, it is desirable to havethe bag made with extended sides turned over outwardly at the top, toform flaps, as indicated at 17 in Fig. 2 and Fig. et. An ordinary paperbag may be used, however, by slitting the upper corners and turning downthe sides to form flaps. Bags made of relatively strong mate rial mayhave their sides turned down without slitting. the corners, since theresultant folds in the material in this case will not be of consequence.In applying a paper bag the flaps 17 are grasped respectively by bothhands near'theinner ends, in the manner indicated in F ig.' 2. The flapsare then placed over the bag holding arms 8 and slid inwardly under theclamping bars9 to position. The clamping bars serve to crimp the bagmaterial into the channels of the arms and thereby-hold it firmly inplace.

This method of fastening is very secure for the reason that the pull ofthe ba material is snubbed-around three corners at 18, 19, and 20..There is in fact very little tendenoyfor the material to slip past theclamping bars at 20, and a light tension of the spring 10 is all that isrequiredto hold the bag firmly in place.

This. fastening method is also particularly satisfactory as a means forutilizing the strength of the bag material to the utmost,

as is necessary in t case of paper bags and others made of relativelyweak material. The weight of the contents of the bag is supportedequally by its two sides, and is distributed in a uniform manner alongthe whole of their extent by reason of the self adjustment of theflexibly mounted clamping bar. A paper bag supported in this manner willsustain many times the load it would carry if rigidly clamped to theholding arms.

We desire to call attention particularly to the central pivotal mountingof clamping bars 9 011 springs 10, as shown at 21. B this means thepressure exerted by the springs is equalized and distributed uniformlythroughout the whole of the bearing surface of the clamping bars. Also,by reason of the leverage, this construction makes it easier to insertthe bag material when a bag is being placed on the holder. The singlesmall point of engagement between the clamping bar and-spring,together-with the resiliency of the: spring itself provides thenecessary flexibility for self adjustment of the clamping bar mentionedin the paragraphs just preceding.

It is obvious that the form of the device may be varied in many Ways,and that-the invention is not limited to the details of constructionhereinshown anddescr'ibed, except as set forth in the appended'claims.

WV e claim as our invention:

1. A bag holder comprising supports, bag holding arms thereon, springbars extending from said supports, and clamping bars pivoted at theircenters to said spring bars and bearing against said bag hold-ingarms.

2. -A bag holder comprising movable supporting levers, bag supportingarms thereon, spring bars I connected directly with said support,andba-g clamping bars pivoted to said spring bars and bearing againstsaid arms.

ARTHUR J. FARN'SWORTH. V ETHELBERT M. ST. CLAIRE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressingi the"-0ommi'ssioner of latents. *Washington,:-D. 6.

